New Orleans-Katrina Relief 1
Participants on the trip Wade, Dara, Caleb and Anna Gardner. David, Monica, Jelissa, Kristie and Lakeisha Livingston. Nikki (Wiseman) Shields - photographer Students: Nathan Landry, Jordon Olson, Andrew Kennedy, Rob McFarren, Amanda (Morse) McFarren, Crystal Fisher, Amos Rose, Eric Kruse and Angie Miller Bill and Seth Orsborn and the Littleton Team Wade shares about the trip Katrina visited New Orleans in 2005, and the place will never be the same. But Kairos visited New Orleans in 2006, and we will never be the same. It was an amazing time. We teamed up with the Bill Orsborn and the Littleton Church of Christ (from Denver) to head down to New Orleans for the week. Wade, Dara and our children were already on the road, so we met everyone down there. The rest of the college-aged folks came down in the vans with Bill and his crew. They drove all night, sleeping in the vans. (Except for the drivers, of course!) It was so great to be down there. Katrina was such a "bad" thing, but I just love how God is able to bring so much "good" out of "bad." Everyone we talked to down there was just in awe of how people have reached out to help them in their time of need. Back home when you ask someone if you can pray for them, they are often taken back a bit. But down there, you had to preface your request for prayers by saying, "What is it that we can be specifically praying about?" And everyone always had something that was going on. Not everyone we helped was "poor," but everyone was so grateful. Just before the trip happened, God arranged it so that we were given $1900 to take down and give away. Some of the people who we tried to give it to insisted that they really didn't need it. So we asked if they knew anyone who really needed it - and they never had a problem thinking of plenty of people who they could pass it along to. In fact, one lady called her friend on the phone right then, just so her friend could thank us in person! The students that went did such a great job. When it's time to work, everyone worked HARD. And when it was time to play (UNO, spoons, etc) we all played hard too! No broken bones, but a few minor cuts, bangs, and carpet burns. (Sorry Amanda!) :) We even had a chance to have church together Saturday night in the parking lot. I love how Kairos loves each other. How they are so willing to put others first. God really used us to touch some lives down there, and he really used down there to change our lives as well. God is good. It doesn't matter what size "Katrina" is in your life. God is good. We might not "thank" God for every situation that comes along, but we sure can praise him through it all! Rob McFarren: God's palbable presence I'll put some more thoughts on this in here later, but I just wanted to share a thought from my last week. I just returned from a mission trip to New Orleans to help in the recovery and clean up from Hurricane Katrina. And my initial impact on my life is how is was so apparent how God was working there. His presence was so obvious. In the lives and attitudes of the volunteers, the organizations helping, and even in the citizens. Ok, so not everyone was even a Christian, but God was there. He was working, and showing His Glory. God is good. It just hit me so hard, that this is the type of life we are really called to live. Of service for His Glory. Serving others, showing love. Simple as that. And it doesn't even have to only be in the aftermath of tragedy. But in daily life--why not show it at work? Now I am meditating on God, and what He needs to change in me to let this happen, so each week is for Him and Him alone, to have His presence stay so visible...because this is what He wants... Andrew Kennedy: Cleanup in New Orleans Dec 29, 2005 - Well, after a non-eventful 23 hour drive we finally arrived at Tammany Oaks Church of Christ in Mandeville LA. After a night of preperation... I am writting in the morning (of the 29th) before we head out to clean up the mess. Thus not much to report yet. Although Dinner and breakfast were good, dirty rice and beans for dinner and bisquits and sausage gravy for breakfast. List of stuff I forgot: (So far, I might be adding to it later.) Cell Phone Work Boots I'll post again after work today. Dec 30, 2005 (morning) - Well, here we are, one day down, who knows how many more to go... :P Yesterday we "De-mucked" a house. Basically everything except for the studs went out. All the carpet, drywall, insulation, everything out. It was fun wearing a respirator though, sort of. Really tiring work, but fun and fulfilling. Afterwards we went out to dinner at a restaruant in Downtown NO, so we got to see some of the sights and sounds and such. I got seafood gumbo, VERY Fishy, not horrible, but very fishy, I liked the jumbalya better, its sort of like pastat bake but with sea food. Then I slept like a rock all night... On the drive in we got to see a lot fo the destruction first hand, it is a mess down here. half of buildings lying around, lots of litter, signs advertising house gutting and re-building, lots and lots of signs, like the political signs. We drove on the causeway to get across lake ponchartrain, 25 miles of "bump, bump, bump, bump..." fun, and pretty in the daytime, but long and boring... ohwell, cya'll later. Dec 30, 2005 (evening) - Whew, today was exausting (yes I finally got on in the evening...). I am about to fall asleezZzzZzzZzzZz. Anyways, we went and cut down a bunch of trees today, it was pretty fun, carrying all the wood around. And participating in that scottish tree throwing contest... Then we took down a shed... it had a refrigerator in it... it had a couple of jugs of milk in it... they burst... oooh my gosh that was a HORRIBLE smell!! 4 month old milk all over the ground... Then we went and tore out the guts of another house, which we will finish up tomorrow. Cya Jan 1, 2006 - Today was a short day, we worked some more on de-mucking a house we started yesterday. We didn't get it finished, which is slightly depressing, but we only worked for the morning, then we prepared for new years eve festivities in the afternoon. A bunch of our group went to new orleans to see what there was to do, but they didn't do much, just walked around for 45 minutes and came back... at 12:30, after leaving at around 7 ish. Heh, the party was definatly back at the church we are staying at. We had a massive bonfire that was at least 10 feet tall. We also had tons and tons of fireworks. lots of lights and sounds and big boomies... OOOO YAA, Big shells with launching tubes... heck yes... Then there was the Killer Uno game, where the winner gets to add a rule after each round, I never get tired of killer uno. After I get back home (after another 23 hour van ride...) I'll post the conclusion to my trip. Jordan Olson: Mission Trip I went on a mission trip to New Orleans this week. Man was it an eye opener. All the houses on all the streets have to be gutted and mainly rebuilt. Unless it was a two story house. Man it was so cool. I feel so at ease and at peace with God. I felt like we touched all the people we helped and even some that we didn’t help. Well it was cool. I enjoyed it and it made me look at my life and the way I live. I am going to live as though I have no time schedule and I’m going to help those who are in distress. No more, “I’m on my way to work or I’m busy. Check out some of the pictures. In my reading of John I found a cool verse in chapter nine. Jesus heals a blind man and the people ask him if he had sinned and is that the reason he was blind. Well Jesus said that the reason the man was blind was so that he could work through him to reach others. Katrina has done the same. Yes it was a disaster and lives were lost. But I guarantee that lives have been saved. I have also learned not to worry about all my possessions and things. Ya know if they break or I lose them. I know now what people are feeling to lose everything. I just pray that those we reach will do the same and reach others. One other thing, are you doing that. Are you reaching those who need it. Who need to find God. If not then you need to show how God works in your life. Stop for the person who has broken down or even the person that has a lot of groceries. Just stop and ask if they need help. Nathan Landry: The New Orlean Chronicles Part 1 - We've returned from our mission trip to New Orleans and praise God for the opportunities we had there. The main thing we did while we were there was "gut" houses. We basically took all of the drywall, insulation, furniture, carpet, tile, etc. out of the house so it could be rebuilt. Other tasks included tearing down a garage, and cutting down trees. All in all the destruction even after all this time is still incredible. The first house we did was smaller and smelled horrible. The carpet was still completely soaked and you could see a path of puddles where you walked on it. We completely gutted that house so it was just the ourter bricks and the studs and some wiring and a water heater. That night Bill the fearless leader of the group took us all out to dinner with one of the ladies whos house another half of our group had gutted that day. We went to Landry's Seafood and all had a jolly good time with food and fellowship with our new friends from Littleton Church of Christ (and a fun fact ends up that is the church that my boss at Pump it Up attends). The next day we woke up bright and early at Tammany Oaks Church of Christ who were kind enough to house us and who have been hosting volunteers since the hurricane first hit. We had breakfast and a morning devo and went to a house with a car flipped on it's side and a ruined garage. We flipped the car and emptied all the stuff out of the garage into the culdesac where it was then dumped by city officials. After we finished that we split into two groups again and one group went to tear down another garage that had collapsed on itself and my group which consisted of most of the Folks from Kairos went to cut down trees and hall them to the side of the road (see second picture) That's all for now but I will definately continue to post the rest of what happened later. Part 2 - I’ve been thinking about a lot of stuff the last couple weeks. It seems hard to believe that that is all the time that has passed since the trip to New Orleans. It already seems like the whole trip is fading away into a memory. Something that I’ll be able to look back on and say “remember when?” I’m not sure if I can really say the lessons I learned down there will always be with me. I say this because I’m not sure if I really learned anything new. This seems to be a struggle that at least I deal with quite often. I’ve grown up a Christian and grown up in the church. I’ve heard so many sermons and Sunday school lessons that it seems like I never hear anything new (which all goes back to Ecclesiastes). I know a lot of this is a pride issue but also I think it’s because the basics of Christianity are so simple. Love God, love others because God loves you and forgives you no matter what. Now I say there simple but actually understanding them is a different matter. At the same time though I’m not sure how much someone can get out of a sermon, I’ve heard time and time again that Jesus loves me no matter what and that he can forgive anything. I have no doubt about that. I’ve heard that God blesses you through your giving. I’ve heard so many lessons on tithing I could probably write a book It’s gotten to the point where I rarely get much out of sermons besides cool verses. I feel like the five things that really help me grow my faith are these: Meeting in small groups such as kairos or prayer groups, Worshipping God whether it be in song or just meditation on his glory, spending time digging into the Bible, prayer and serving and putting his the things I have learned to good use. Now back to the New Orleans trip The trip allowed me to do all of these things. We got to work in groups, worship in groups, talk in groups, and pray in groups. We got to sing praises to the Lord whether it was during formal worship services or just having a good time in the vans. I was able to set time aside to continue reading through Luke. But by far the two greatest things I was strengthened by was the prayer and service. See I’m not sure if I learned any new lessons. It helped reiterate the power of prayer to me. And that’s something that I’ve really been thinking about these last few weeks. In fact you’ll probably see me write more about prayer soon. It was just incredible to be able to see so many people be prayed for and give us prayer requests. I got home and just had an urge to go around to random people asking for prayer requests. I didn’t, which I regret and I can come up with excuses why I didn’t and shouldn’t have but I don’t want to dwell on that right now. As I just said the other huge thing was the service aspect. That’s why we went after all, to serve. At times I just sort of shut my brain off and did things there are points of time in my memory of the trip where all I can say is “I’m pretty sure I did such and such” instead of details it’s sort of like a giant block in my mind where it says “at this point in time I SERVED.” And I may be completely wrong on this but I see that as a sort of good thing. It doesn’t matter how you serve as long as you do it. I know what we did as a whole down there, and I know at least to some extent what is still being done down there. But the details aren’t what matter it’s the action. I don’t think I learned a whole lot from serving itself but it’s something I needed to do. It’s something we as the body of Christ need to do. I know we were where God wanted us doing what he wanted us to do. Quite a few scattered thoughts in there but I hope you can get the gist of it all. God bless Megan (Kirkham) Brummer: Louisana Note: Megan was a part of Kairos but had gone off to Bible College. She went to New Orleans with her college and shared her thoughts... Well, a group from school went down to Louisiana this weekend to help with hurricane relief, and I must say it was unforgetable and very humbling! We left Friday around 3 in the afternoon and drove all night to get to Alexandria, LA. We arrived at 4 am and didn't even bother to look for the camp we were supposed to sleep at. We just slept in the van in front of the warehouse we were working in. All day Saturday, we unloaded, sorted, and packed supplies donated to Journey Christian Church for the hurricane relief. It was supposed to be two days worth of work, but it only took us one day. That night, we found the camp and enjoyed good ol' southern hospitality. All of the people there were hurricane victims that drove north to live at the camp until they could get their lives back together. They welcomed us with open arms and thanked us over and over for being willing to help with the relief. They made us gumbo and apple and peach cobbler and let us sleep in their dorms with them. We got up at 5:30 am Sunday morning and drove down to Lafayette, LA to volunteer in the Cajundome. The doors of the dome were surrounded by police, military, and MP's, and we had to fill out forms and go through security just to get in. When the Red Cross volunteer led us into the main dome, we saw thousands of cots lying out on the floor. Very few of the cots even had bags next to them. Most of these people had only the pillow and blanket on their cot and the clothes on their back. Moreover, those who did have a small bag of things had to worry about theft. They led us out of the main dome into a large ballroom where there were hundreds of more cots spread out over the floor. Again, it was evident that these people had nothing. This was the room where Distribution took place, which is where they placed us to work. All morning we handed out shirts, pants, socks, underwear, shoes, blankets, towels, and sheets to people who needed these basics. Socks for adults were in very high demand and we just didn't have any. There were no mens pants smaller than a size 36 waist and very few flip flops. I hated having to tell someone that we didn't have clean socks for them to wear that day, because that meant that they would have to wear the same socks they've been wearing since the hurricane hit at least one more day. Most of the people who came through thanked us profusely. It was amazing. I really felt compassion for these people. I really loved them. I had never seen anything like this, and I still don't know where to place it in my head. One man asked if we just had a small bag that he could use to carry his soap and towel with him to the shower. He said that he had to drag his whole suitcase with him. Another woman came asking for clothes for two of her children. For days there were no clothes in their size, and Sunday was no different. Her children have no clean clothes. Many people came asking for t-shirts, shorts, and sandals because it is hot in Louisiana this time of year. But these were low in supply, and these people continue to wear dirty, sweaty jeans, long-sleeve shirts and sweaters, and boots or tennis shoes. We have so much. After we left the Cajundome, we had to drive through New Orleans to get back on 55 to come north. We drove straight through the city, although we couldn't exit of the main interstate. There was a cop car at every exit and you had to have a legitimate reason to get off the main road. The city is still under marshall law. But on the interstate, we still saw first hand the worst of the damage. Entire outer walls were missing from buildings. Watermarks from the flooding came up to the second storey on brick houses. Piles upon piles upon piles of rubble and garbage. Entire houses missing off their foundations. Cars piled on top of cars. Boats on upper decks. Huge sections missing out of bridges over the lake. It looked worse than those pictures from Bosnia, Iraq, North Korea, and other war zones. All of this is to say, we really need to pray for our fellow Americans in the south. We need to reach out and help them however we can. We need to keep in mind our brothers and sisters in Christ who are victims to this disaster and have compassion on them. We need to be incredibly grateful to God for how he has protected and provided for us and for the survivors of Katrina. Katie - A Katrina story Katie was another lady that we were able to help out. She had bought her first house, cleaned it up, installed new hardwood floors, and was ready to move in the weekend after Katrina came along. What a devastating blow. She was so thankful for the help that we offered. It was great to have her working with the group, cleaning up her own home. She thought that she was going to take all 30 of us out to eat afterwards, but we talked her into letting us take her out to eat instead. Luke, one from our group, was able to pass $100 along to Katie. She said that she didn’t “need” it, but we were able to convince her that we had brought the money all the way from Colorado just to bless people in special ways, while showing them the practical love of God. She humbly accepted it. God is good, isn’t he?! Gloria - A Katrina story One of the houses we gutted belonged to Gloria. She had been living in New Orleans, but Katrina had devastated her house. In fact, there was still water in it in January, months after it all happened. We went and “de-mucked” her house, pulling out sheetrock and insulation, all the way down to the studs. They might have to be replaced as well, as the standing water rotted some of them out. Gloria is slightly mentally handicapped, so she had an agency that was helping her out somewhat. Teresa, who helps her out, brought Gloria over to say hi to us. Gloria was so thankful for what we were doing to help her. As we had been given money to use to help people out, I was able to pass $100 along to Gloria. She was so overcome by emotion she couldn’t even look at the camera for a picture. But our students came over right away and loved all over her. It was awesome. It was all about God. NO1.jpg|The Kairos and Littleton team in New Orleans NO2.jpg|Part of the crew with Katie (seated) NO3.jpg|The kids: Anna, Caleb and Seth. NO4.jpg|Part of the crew with Gloria.